Well … this morning I guess … we made our first trip to the ER at BC Children’s.
Aidan woke around 1:15 this morning, and Gwen went and got him. He was quite warm, and when we took his temperature, it was about 101.5. This was surprising since he’d been fever-free for the past four or five days. We dosed him with the infant Advil, but by 1:45, his temperature hadn’t budged, and his breathing seemed rapid and shallow. Since these were the symptoms we were told to watch out for, we packed up and headed to the emerg.
And arrived around 2am.
And, although we were shown into a room immediately, and the triage nurse bustled in and around, took his temperature and hooked him up to the monitor, it was quite a while before we saw a doctor. In fact, it was pretty close to 4:30 before the resident mosied in and took a look at him. She ordered a chest xray and a ventolin mask. We made it to radiology just as the xray tech was packing up, but she squeezed us in.
The sight of your infant son, literally strapped to a chair, with his arms strapped above his head, bawling his eyes out, and you forced to wait behind the radiation shield is not a pleasant one.
Back to the exam room, and wait for the paediatrician to visit. He took the mask reasonably well, but of course he was exhausted from the continuing ordeal.
We saw the paediatrician by about 5:45 where she told us that we were to increase his ventolin masks, she was adding pulmacort to the mix too. The pulmacort is supposed to continue for the next month, and the ventolin for the next two weeks. The chest xrays didn’t look too bad, but there were sufficient dark spots that he was also prescribed amoxil. After receiving the verdict, we had to wait for the scripts and for the new nurse to give him the first amoxil dose.
We were back home around 6:30.
Gwen and Aidan went to bed, and at 8, I headed to work.
Right now, his fever’s still up, and we’re all tired. The antibiotic is 3 times a day, the venolin 4 times a day, and the pulmacort, twice daily. Why can’t they change the size of the doses so that the drugging schedules mesh nicely?
And, oh, Gwen & I are still being knocked around by our own colds.
Pray for sleep.
You all are having a pretty rough time. Does Aidan have pnemonia, asthma or a lung infection or did they not give it a name. You guys must be exhausted I really wish I was there to help. I guess it is time to bring out the old rosary beads and pray that you all get some sleep and get rid of the flu/virus or whatever.
Love, hugs and kisses
Grandma Kathy
Well, for infants, they don’t diagnose asthma until there’s been a few incidents. They don’t think it’s pneumonia, but have said that he is at increased risk of developing it. They really didn’t say he had a lung infection, but that must be what the antibiotics are for.
Last night was a good night. For the most part, all slept well. Aidan’s fever is still up, but hopefully the antibiotics will take care of the root cause and we’ll continue to dose him with Tylenol.
My poor babies!!! I wish that I lived closer. I know how hard it is to work on no sleep, having done it a number of times, so my heart goes out to you Anthony. Gwen, you are finding out how many things a mom can do that she never thought possible. I will pray for your recovery, lots of sleep and continued strength.